Episode 236 - Bikini Hacks and Fixes

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·20m 28s·analyzed·Nov 2, 2015

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

EM tech details Bikini restoration, diagnostic challenges, and shorted relay repair.

Summary

Nicholas Baldridge details extensive restoration and troubleshooting work on a heavily damaged Bally Bikini bingo machine, including playfield cleaning after mouse infestation, diagnosis of mysteriously added relay modifications, and resolution of issues with futility game collection and extra ball functionality. Key problem identified: shorted coil in futurity collect relay causing power drop-off; also discusses ongoing issues with extra ball stepper and hopper payout mechanism.

Key Claims

The Bikini machine had mysterious relay modifications (N3 relay) added by a previous Bally technician that were causing blue section lighting issues
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge describing field work and service notes found on machine schematic
The futurity collect relay coil is shorted, drawing massive current and causing power drop to anti-cheat relay
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge after testing with jumper and observing large spark
Mouse urine and scratching damage penetrated underneath screened ink on playfield, pulling it up over extended period
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge describing Bikini playfield condition assessment
An extra switch pair was added to the control unit's switch stack E that was defeating the extra ball function during search cycle
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge discovering modification preventing ball advance
The Bikini machine has a hopper instead of standard Replay reset mechanism, using microswitch to count nickels paid out
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge describing payout mechanism

Notable Quotes

“The mice really did a number on the playfield... the urine actually got underneath the screened ink and started pulling it up”
Nicholas Baldridge @ early segment — Describes severity of pest damage and restoration challenge
“I don't remember there being a relay there in Bikini... and underneath there was a bally service tag and the technician that had worked on this game had actually written a note and he said see n3 in the book”
Nicholas Baldridge @ mid segment — Discovery of mysterious field modification that required detective work to understand
“It shot out the biggest freaking spark that I... it was like a Fireball Arcade and less like a spark”
Nicholas Baldridge @ troubleshooting segment — Dramatic discovery moment revealing shorted coil problem
“The coil is shorted. And so it is drawing a massive amount of current... The amount of current it drew was so massive that it caused the power to the anti relay to drop out”
Nicholas Baldridge @ diagnosis segment — Root cause identification for futurity relay malfunction
“I'll add the I'm a polite dummy to myself because I looked around for the problem for quite a while and then I realized that there was likely a problem with the coil”
Nicholas Baldridge @ troubleshooting reflection — Self-critique on diagnostic approach and eventual breakthrough

Entities

Nicholas BaldridgepersonBikinigameFor Amusement OnlyorganizationBallycompany4 Million BCgameFireball Arcadeorganization

Signals

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restoration_signal: Bikini machine suffered extensive mouse infestation with urine damage penetrating screened ink on playfield; required deep cleaning and playfield stripping in multiple passes
high · Nicholas Baldridge detailed account of urine damage, ink lifting, and multi-pass cleaning approach
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product_concern: Previous technician added unexplained N3 relay modification and extra switch pairs that were interfering with intended game functionality (blue section lighting, extra ball dispensing)
high · Baldridge discovered relay and switches with service notes, traced their effects on blue scorer and extra ball circuits
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product_concern: Futurity collect relay coil is shorted, drawing excessive current and causing power degradation to anti-cheat relay circuit
high · Baldridge tested with jumper, observed large spark discharge, confirmed short with meter measurement
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restoration_signal: Machine schematic was damaged by mice (chewed, scratched, and urine-soaked) but still contained critical service notes (N3 reference) needed for troubleshooting
high · Baldridge referenced opening damaged schematic to find technician notes explaining modifications
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gameplay_signal: Extra ball stepper on Bikini experiencing intermittent function (occasionally skips ball advance stage, sometimes grants two extra balls), likely wiring issue on back of disk
high · Baldridge diagnosed during testing, identified as wiring-side problem requiring further investigation

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.061

0:00

What's that sound? It's 4 Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to 4 Amusement Only. This is Nick Baldridge. Today I went back to a customer's site and worked on their bikini. Now bikini is a 25 hole bingo, it's a magic screen and it's got the futurity feature which allows you to build up your red letter game for later play. This particular machine had a family of mice living in it at one time and the mice really did a number on the playfield. Thankfully they left the wiring alone but the playfield was really badly damaged by scratching and most importantly by urine. The urine actually got underneath the screened ink and started pulling it up so it had I had sat with urine on it for a very long time, which doesn't help anything either. So last time I went out there, I got the machine running. I just made it so that it would actually start a game and do the basics of what it needed to do. Today was about prettying it up. So, the first thing I did was strip the playfield. I had already done a initial pass and had stripped the playfield last time because it was that filthy. But I didn't have any of my real deep cleaning chemicals and so forth with me. So, today I did and I went in and just and the where the mouse here and had sat for a long time so all that said the playfield is now looking good and then I started focusing my attention on troubleshooting. So I went through and did my normal test. I made sure that the game scored in each color, in each position of the screen, for three, four, and five in a row, as well as in the colored sections. Now, here's where things I'm in the back and I'm poking around I'm trying to figure out why the blue section isn't lighting because normally it will light at least three in the blue for 300 when the magic screen moves a certain amount. The unit was stepped all the way up but the blue section wasn't lit. I checked the bulbs, there are a variety of bad sockets in this particular game, but it wasn't that. The bulb itself actually wasn't lit. So I said, hmm, this is interesting. And I looked closer, and there's an extra relay. I said, I don't remember there being a relay there in Bikini. and underneath there was a bally service tag and the technician that had worked on this game had actually written a note and he said see n3 in the book well this game didn actually come with the appropriate manual so it did come with a schematic that the mice had chewed on

5:13

8:11

Now on the control unit they had added an extra switch pair with its own spacer and everything. and everything is pretty impressive on switch stack E. Now, we're five depending on how you look at it. And then on mixer number three, it looked like they just connected a lug that was previously disconnected. I have absolutely no idea I have no idea what that lug on the mixer unit is doing. I need to research that a little more. But, on the control unit, that switch was defeating the extra ball. It would step up to first and extra, but it would never advance to ball. Closed during the search cycle. That's a cruel Trick is what that is. So I defeated that switch as well and the game started playing as it should. Except for two problems. These two problems took most of my day today in trying to figure out. Neither is fully resolved. The first was that the red replay counter would cause the game to go into tilt and replay reset It would basically cause the game to temporarily lose power once it stepped a certain number of times prot It took completely 11 hitst algorithms to achieve 100 zac multiple hitstiedo mounted Un gryresidentensus cryptomechanical It's very very simple. There's only a handful of lugs. There's no wiring on the back of the disc. It's all surface traces and the unit steps appropriately. I had taken care of that last time I was out. So, I was puzzled until I started looking into the other problem and that is that the futurity game would never pay There's a dedicated button on bikini on the control rail. When you push it, it will grant you the futurity game that you've built up in the upper right corner of the back glass. Now, I've mashed this button about a billion times and I could not make it work. And this is one of those that's a little hard to test from the back of the game because I wanted to see that the circuit path and the button would actually work. But when I tested it manually in the backbox by just pushing on the collect futurity relay, it was doing all kinds of weird stuff. It was not zeroing out the futurity stepper and on top of that, it wasn't even holding the relay in. and I found this rather odd but if I held it down manually it would do what it was supposed to do except for zero out the futurity stepper. So my first clue should have been that it didn't hold itself in. Now most relays have a lock-in switch which will keep the relay active until it is finished doing its and the game will function as you expect. It wasn't doing this and really there's two reasons for that. One, your locking switch is dirty or disconnected or two, there's a problem with your coil. I'll add the I'm a polite dummy to myself because I looked around for the problem for quite a while and then I realized that there was likely a problem with the coil. I went through all the wiring from the button to the backbox, I'm embarrassed to say, and across two different Jones plugs, you know, made sure that everything was working the way it was supposed to on both sides of that switch. All the way from the front to the back of the game and everything checked out and I said great but it still doesn't work. So then I got the bright idea of jump ring that relay. Now I wanted to test and see if that relay would actually work. And so I took the power from the anti-cheat relay which is just a few above it And for those who don't know the anti-cheat relay is always active when you've started a game in a bingo.

15:35

company Are break both see singe a Jones plug set to the most liberal and it is still having a hard time giving up extra balls. It goes first an extra and then occasionally it will give ball. Sometimes it will actually give two extra balls, but the unit itself is sound. There's a problem in the unit somewhere but my guess is it's on the Wiring Side of the disk which is going to be a joy to trouble shoot because ill have to take this discount and figure it out. But, all things with time, I'll have this problem licked and then that game will be back in circulation, which is pretty great. Now the game also has a hopper installed instead of the normal replay reset. When replay reset engages, it engages a special extra payout relay, which in turn engages the hopper, starts it spinning. Now the hopper will grab as many nickels as it takes and bring them up to a special gravity feed funnel which then goes into the payout pocket underneath the front door. For each nickel that passes by a microswitch it takes one replay off the replay register sophisticative game of Kartcila, обще знак Pneumonicker步 cœstrurous cir מא noting Symphony boardingHere and There Assoass 것은 Moyne In��'tis Sud samples. The game was very well marked everything very well As far as wire colors and so forth They didn't have a bunch of weird splices or anything of that nature I've seen some weird stuff, but this was actually pretty good The only problem with this Is that the replay reset of course is dependent on the hopper function The question is, how long does the player not reverse Messages the key showing up as a hand Next time I'll let you all know that Futurity is working again and the game is 100% but for now I'm pretty pleased with the progress. There's more to be done. I also took a look at a 4 million BC that was having startup issues and I diagnosed a couple of problems but have not corrected. So I'll be doing more of that next time I'm out there. But that's all for tonight. Thank you again for joining me. My name again is Nick Baldrige. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com or you can call me on the bingos line. That's 724-BINGOS-1. 724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, stitcher, pocketcasts,via RSS, on facebook, on twitter, at bingopodcast, you can follow me on instagram at nbaldridge, you can listen to us on google play music, or you can listen to us on our website which is foramusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time.